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AUSTIN — School districts will throw everything short of the kitchen sink into their upcoming lawsuit against the state of Texas for shortchanging public education, a lead attorney in the case said Tuesday.

“We are going to try to cover the waterfront because the system is so out of whack,” school finance lawyer Randall “Buck” Wood said.

The suit, which he expects to file within two weeks, will claim state leaders have created an “arbitrary, irrational and inequitable” funding system.

The suit also will claim the state is responsible for the inequitable funding of school facilities, he said, while also alleging a violation of the state's ban against a statewide property tax.

Nearly one-quarter of the state's school districts are already levying the maximum $1.17 tax rate for maintenance and operations, resulting in a statewide property tax, Wood said, which the Texas Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in a school finance case six years ago.

There have been six constitutional challenges to Texas's school finance system to reach the Texas Supreme Court since the landmark Edgewood vs. Kirby decision in 1989, when the court ruled that “districts must have substantially equal access to similar revenue per pupil at similar levels of tax effort.”

Per-student funding in Texas now ranges from less than $5,000 per child in some school districts to more than $10,000 in others, according to the Equity Center, which represents 690 school districts.

“We believe litigation is the only way to ensure taxpayer equity and a quality education for Texas children,” said Wayne Pierce, executive director for the Equity Center.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott will defend the state's school funding system but declined to comment on the pending litigation.

More than 100 school districts already have joined the Equity Center's legal fight, and many more are expected to do so in the coming weeks.

Northside Superintendent John Folks said San Antonio's largest district likely will join the suit, though it probably won't decide until November.

Besides the Equity Center lawsuit, school finance lawyer David Thompson is preparing a case. Folks said his district wants to wait and see what develops from Thomson's case, adding that the district “totally agrees” with the Equity Center.

Litigation is necessary, Folks said, “Because we have a very inequitable system of school funding. We certainly don't have an adequate system because the Legislature just cut $4 billion.”

Also contributing to the inadequacy is the $2 billion per year structural deficit created in 2006 when lawmakers reduced school property taxes but did not generate enough from the revised business tax to cover the difference, Folks said.